In wireless networks, the range of a cell (i.e. the distance below which a base station is capable of connecting and providing services to a User Equipment (UE)) depends on the length of a window in which the base station is configured to wait for RACH (Random Access CHannel) messages. This means that, for a fixed length of this window, only UEs within a certain distance from the base station can establish a connection with the base station, while UEs which are further than said distance cannot be serviced by the base station, even if the physical conditions (e.g. received signal power) would allow said service.
The coverage of a cell is thus vendor implementation dependant, and it can, in most cases, be manually switched between two ranges, corresponding to two operation modes:                Normal Cell Range, with typical values of 30 to 40 kilometers.        Extended Cell Range, which allows the base station to serve UEs within the maximum possible range (typically, up to 100 Km). In this case, propagation becomes a limiting factor, thus requiring very good propagation conditions to being able to provide service up to that maximum range. Typical scenarios in which propagation conditions may allow to fully exploit the Extended Cell Range include flat terrains and the sea, usually with a low density of UEs.        
Nevertheless, even in scenarios in which the Extended Cell Range can be activated without being affected by problems in the propagation conditions, Extended Cell Range presents a major drawback, that is, its baseband capacity consumption is much higher than the baseband capacity consumption of the Normal Cell Range (typically 2 or 3 times higher).
For this reason, using the Extended Cell Range as a fixed configuration, ignoring the situation of the scenario at a given instant, can result in a waste of resources, while limiting the base station to the Normal Cell Range can leave without service UEs within the maximum range of the base station, even in conditions of low baseband capacity consumption.